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Conflict over historic Bosler House roils in Denver's West Highland

By Austin BriggsThe Denver Post

Posted:
12/05/2013 12:01:00 AM MST

Updated:
12/06/2013 01:21:11 PM MST

Keith Painter, who has refused to repair the roof of the Bosler House, says he won't put another dime toward repairs he estimates at $2.3 million. The 138-year-old home overlooks Highland Park in the West Highland neighborhood. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)

A five-year battle between Denver's Landmark Preservation Commission and a homeowner who wants to bulldoze a 138-year-old historic landmark that's missing parts of its roof is at a stalemate.

Keith Painter, owner of the Bosler House, says he won't put another dime toward repairs he estimates at $2.3 million. He wants to demolish the house and replace it with condos overlooking Highland Park in the trendy West Highland neighborhood.

"We have a group, the Historic Denver Landmark Preservation Commission, that thinks no matter what, every old building, no matter how unsafe, needs to be saved," Painter said. "That's my property. I didn't do anything maliciously, and if there's no money for repairs, I should be allowed to take it down."

"The nightmare a lot of people have is the Bosler House will be torn down and the property will be built out to the max, for the most amount of money per square foot," said Tom Noel, a history professor and preservation expert at the University of Colorado Denver. "Other homeowners will say, 'Oh, it doesn't matter if it's a landmark: We can let it fall down and sell it.' "

The coveted Highland neighborhoods have rapidly gentrified, drawing hip commercial development and expensive new housing. Brand-new multistory condos now sit right next door to 100-year-old homes.

The historic Bosler House — designated an individual historic landmark in 1984, four years before owner Keith Painter purchased it — has been placed on Denver's list of Neglected and Derelict Buildings. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)

But even with the flow of new homes, shops and restaurants, most historic houses have been left intact, Noel said.

The city has pressed Painter to comply with court orders to develop a repair plan for the house and seal the open roof. But he has refused.

As a result, the house — designated an individual historic landmark in 1984, four years before Painter purchased it — has been placed on the city's list of Neglected and Derelict Buildings.

If a hearing officer rules Thursday that Painter is in violation of the city's derelict-building ordinance, he could be fined $999 a day, retroactively.

The house has been empty since January 2009. Painter had pulled a reroofing permit. But, according to the Landmark Preservation Commission, he instead began to modify the second-floor roof line of the brick home to add more habitable space without permits or preservation board review and a stop-work order was issued.

The next month, he was ordered by the commission to remove his work and hire an architect with historic-preservation qualifications to draw up acceptable plans for the roof.

Painter said that his subsequent inspections of the home led him to conclude that shortcuts taken by late-19th-century builders were manifesting themselves in brickwork that had splayed and water had damaged the foundation. These structural issues, he said, make the property unsafe for his family or any future owners.

"It's been very gut-wrenching realizing how many problems this place has," Painter said. "There just came a point where I had to say, 'Stop.' "

"Freezing water expands 9 percent, and with that expansion, the water can go into hairline cracks you can't even see," Travis said. "That saturates the bricks, and the expansion can then crack the brick. This cycle is the No. 1 issue in Colorado."

When a brick home suffers too much water damage, load-bearing interior walls can start pulling from the walls they're tied into.

Painter points to a historic multistory brick apartment building in Highland that collapsed while it was being renovated according to city- and preservation commission-approved plans. The building fell down shortly after workers ended their shift Oct. 15.

Painter says his house is older and more brittle and could easily collapse if repairs are attempted.

"The amount of money and work it would take to make this place habitable would cost a small fortune and come at risk of injury or death," he said. "No one in their right mind is going to do it."

If Painter is found in violation of the neglected building ordinance, he will be required to develop a plan to fix the damage.

In most cases, remediation is demolition, assistant city attorney Kerry Buckey said. But that's not an option when a property has an individual historic designation.

In June 2010, Painter put in paperwork a request to demolish the house and build two buildings on the property.

The demolition request was denied, and Painter began the long process of court appeals and presentations to the preservation commission on economic hardships he said should exempt him from fixing the property.

The appeals were denied, and in September 2010, a judge ordered Painter to allow city officials on the property to assess damage and determine how much it would cost to seal the roof.

When a team of nine city workers — including a communications director — showed up to inspect the house, Painter wouldn't allow them on the property.

This resulted in a contempt-of-court charge against him, and the judge overseeing the case rewrote the orders specifying who could be allowed onto the property.

City inspectors determined the home was structurally sound and a temporary roof could be built for around $60,000 at the city's expense, with Painter on the hook for reimbursing the city. Denver's own budget trouble kept it from making the repairs.

But the city could end up responsible for the entire property. If fines exceed 110 percent of a property's value, the city can seize it. Buckey said he could recall only a few cases over the past 13 years when the city was unable to reach an agreement with the owner of a derelict property.

"The city is not in the business of taking other people's property," Buckey said. "That's the last thing we want to do. We would much rather come to some sort of resolution on this case and get the building fixed."

Buckey believes the best course of action is for Painter to find a buyer.

The Denver county assessor website lists the taxable value of the 3,310-square-foot property at $494,200. Painter said he received a few offers on the property that he considered low-ball.

"If it was for the common good, I'd like to bite the bullet and sell the house," Painter said. "If someone wants to put in $2 million, I'm all for it. But don't expect me to give it away."

Austin Briggs: abriggs@denverpost.com or 303-954-1729

Updated Dec. 5 at 8:03 p.m. This online archive has been clarified to reflect the reason a stop-work order was issued on the Bosler House in 2009.

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